i hope you are working on the fiscal cliff. mr. speaker, lamentably and must tell them we are not working. we are not here. we're not addressing the challenges i have just mentioned. mr. speaker, i would hope that the speaker of the house would call us back immediately to address these challenges. we have four days left before the end of this year. before all those items that i spoke about expire. the sequester happens the second of january. we ought to be working here, mr. speaker. we are not. this is a pro forma session. as a set at the beginning, a pro forma session is a session without substance and without solutions. i would urge the speaker of this house to call us back into session, to do what america expect us to do, address the challenges and find solutions. come to agreement. make compromises. make democracy and america work. give confidence to our people and to our economy. i hope, mr. speaker, that the speaker will do that. and will do it today. i yield back the balance of my time. [captioning performed by national capt